Babes in Toyland (1961 film)
''Babes in Toyland ''is a 1961 American Technicolor Christmas musical film produced by Walt Disney Productions, directed by Jack Donohue and distributed to theatres by Buena Vista Distribution. It stars Ray Bolger as Barnaby, Annette Funicello as Mary Contrary, Tommy Sands as Tom Piper and Ed Wynn as the Toymaker. The film is based upon Victor Herbert's popular 1903 operetta of the same name. There had been a 1934 film also titled Babes in Toyland starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy for MGM, and three television adaptations prior to the Disney movie, but Disney's was only the second film version of the operetta released to movie theatres and the first in Technicolor. The plot, and in some cases the music, bear little resemblance to the original, as Disney had most of the lyrics rewritten and some of the song tempos drastically changed, including the memorable song "Toyland", a slow ballad, which was sped up with only the chorus sung in a march-like rhythm. The toy soldiers later appeared in Christmas parades at the Disney theme parks around the world. Plot The film begins as a stage play presented by Mother Goose (Mary McCarty) and her talking goose, Sylvester, about Mary Contrary and Tom Piper, who are about to be getting married. The miserly and villainous Barnaby (Ray Bolger) hires two crooks, dim-witted Gonzorgo (Henry Calvin) and silent Roderigo (Gene Sheldon). They are to throw Tom into the sea and steal Mary's sheep, depriving her of her means of support, to force her to marry Barnaby instead. Mary is unaware that she is the heir to a fortune, but Barnaby is aware and wants it all for himself. Gonzorgo and Roderigo decided to sell Tom to the Gypsies instead of drowning him into the sea, in order to collect a double payment. Gonzorgo and Roderigo returned and told Mary, Barnaby, and the citizens of Mother Goose Land that Tom has accidentally drowned. They showed Mary a forged letter in which Tom tells Mary he is abandoning her, and she would be better off marrying Barnaby. Mary, believing she is destitute, reluctantly accepts the proposal from Barnaby. Barnaby unknowingly arranges for the same Gypsies who have Tom to provide entertainment for the wedding. Tom, disguised as the Gypsy Floretta, reveals himself, and Barnaby pursues the frightened Gonzorgo and Roderigo, furious at their deception. One of the children who lived with Mary informs her of some sheep tracks leading into the Forest of No Return. The children sneaked away into the forest to search for the missing sheep. The trees of the forest awaken and captured them. Tom and Mary follow and find the children in the forest, where they tell stories about the live trees. The trees seemed just like ordinary trees to Tom and Mary. Tom, Mary, and the children camp out for the night. In the morning, the trees once again came to life and explained that they are now in custody of the Toymaker (Ed Wynn) in Toyland (who is also the Mayor and Chief of Police). Tom, Mary, and the children happily continued on, escorted part of the way by the trees. Through the windows of the Toymaker's house they watch the Toymaker's brilliant apprentice, Grumio (Tommy Kirk), present a new machine that makes toys without any manual labor. Overjoyed, the Toymaker speeds up the machine to such a high rate that it explodes, destroying every toy in the factory. Tom, Mary, and the children offered to help make toys in time for Christmas. Grumio presents another invention, a shrinking "gun" that reduces everyday objects to toy size. He warns that if it is used on anything more than once, the shrunken object disappears completely. The Toymaker is at first delighted at the idea of producing toys by shrinking life-sized objects, but then Tom points out the impossibility of finding enough everyday objects to shrink down into the large quantity of toys needed for Christmas. The Toymaker berates Grumio for his stupidity, send him to his room, and threw the shrinking gun out of the window in disgust. Barnaby, who has been spying on them, takes the discarded shrinking gun and used it to shrink the Toymaker and Tom. When Barnaby's henchmen see him threatening to shoot Tom a second time, they abandoned Barnaby. They tried to flee, but Barnaby shoots them and locked them up with Tom in a birdcage. Barnaby forced Mary to marry him by threatening to destroy Tom, and he threatens to destroy the Toymaker if he refuses to preside over the wedding ceremony. While the Toymaker draws out the ceremony, Gonzorgo and Roderigo rescued Tom, and the three of them sneaked away and returned with an army of toy soldiers to fight Barnaby. Barnaby easily demolishes the toy soldiers. He is about to obliterate Tom with another dose from the shrinking gun, but Mary destroys it with a toy cannon. The liquid splatters all over Barnaby and shrinks him to toy size. Tom, after challenging Barnaby to a duel with swords, stabs Barnaby, who falls from a great height to an empty toybox. During the battle with Barnaby, Grumio creates and presents another new invention, one that returns miniaturized people and items to their original size. He immediately uses it on the Toymaker, Gonzorigo, and Roderigo, but not on Barnaby. Grumio is about to use it on Tom, but after reminding Grumio that he is the head Toymaker and that Grumio is just his assistant, the Toymaker used the invention himself to return Tom to his natural size. A few days later, Tom and Mary are married attended by all of Mother Goose Village including Gonzorigo and Roderigo as well as the trees from the Forest of No Return, and everyone lives happily ever after.